Anybody ever owned or jumped a Comet? A 228sq. ft. 7 cell made in the early or mid 80s. Nothing good has come from anything named Comet. The Jetliners crashed, the car was junk, and the Canopy, at least mine was scary. This pic was not all low turn, a turn I pulled off at the DZ many times, but this particular time the canopy really took a bad dive and never recovered. I finally recovered from a broken femur.

Hi-ett, Made a couple dozen jumps on a 228 comet back in '83. Nice canopy for a 7-cell. Sounds funny that your chute was such a dud! Did you call Bill Gargano and see if he would do something about it?? Did you have one of Bill's canopys or one from Chuck Embry?? Willy handed off the Comet line to Chuck when he developed the Hobbit, Spirit and Wizard series. I had one of Willy's Wizards and it was a great canopy!!

I have an X228 sitting on my floor right now, I'm thinking about giving it a go just cos I'm curious. Problem is it doesn't have a slider. Do you reckon I could use it with a ZP slider? Also, it's got a few big holes in the top skin, with broken masking tape around them. I was going to use some gaffer tape to patch them up but now that I've been reading up on it here it feels like I could be defacing a collector's item. Any advice?

I have an X228 sitting on my floor right now, I'm thinking about giving it a go just cos I'm curious. Problem is it doesn't have a slider. Do you reckon I could use it with a ZP slider? Also, it's got a few big holes in the top skin, with broken masking tape around them. I was going to use some gaffer tape to patch them up but now that I've been reading up on it here it feels like I could be defacing a collector's item. Any advice?

Never jumped a Comet, but I do remember them when they started showing up around Perris in 1980. Lots of people bought them and really liked them. The thing that surprised me was just how populat the 300 ft Comet was. Especially nowadays, when so many people have downsize mania. Back then the Comet 300 was extremely popular with a lot of the "hip" crowd.

I had a Comet 228. Loved it. I got my BASE # with that canopy. I jumped a couple Hobitts, too, even had one as a reserve in a Handbury rig. Bill Gargano TSO'd a system to pack it in a 2-riser 2-pin reserve container using a diaper, and Skybill used to pack it for me. (Tacos 'n Hobbitts, haha.) Had another one of Bill's canopies, a Lumen, made some base jumps on that one too.

I had a Comet 300 before sizing was was made the same for manufacturers . Actuall size turn out to be 288. Ididnt pack it when I demoed it. That was the only cutaway ever on it. It was the retired after 600 jumps

I did put more than 700 jumps on my Comet 228 that i still keep in a box in my basement. It was my first canopy and i did everything with it!! It was a great all round canopy but i agree that the openings were increasingly specials with the years..!!

What's the gripe on the older Comets? I owned 4 early to mid-60's Comets. Awesome cars - cheap to buy, incredibly easy to work on, good mileage (all had either the 144 or 200 straight 6), and real metal that did not dent when leaned on. Solid cars; way, way better than today's lower priced pieces of junk.

I had a Comet 228. Loved it. I got my BASE # with that canopy. I jumped a couple Hobitts, too, even had one as a reserve in a Handbury rig. Bill Gargano TSO'd a system to pack it in a 2-riser 2-pin reserve container using a diaper, and Skybill used to pack it for me. (Tacos 'n Hobbitts, haha.) Had another one of Bill's canopies, a Lumen, made some base jumps on that one too.

Any chance of resurrecting the Nasgull?

Hi Matt!!!!, How well I remember Tuesday night "Tacos and Hobbits!!" Your mom's Taco Tuesdays were great! Not many people remember Willie's TSO'ed Diaper on the hobbit. You could use the diaper or stow it in a freebag if you wanted. I believe Willy was one of the first people to use a semisemetrical airfoil instead of the typical flatbottom that other ramairs had.

Forgot I stiil had this - an original Comet brochure! The cover is a shot of the late Frank Donnellan, BASE #12, at Netheravon. Chuck used it for the brochure and gave me one of his custom wallets as payment. The things he used to keep and that wheelchair ...

He started out making wallets in his garage; the women would show up in the morning, cut & sew, and then go home.

The US Social Security folks dropped by one day and said that anyone working on his premises was an employee ( he had them as private contractors ). So he moved the sewing machines into their homes, then he had a truck that would go around each morning & deliver raw fabric, etc & pickup the finished goods from the day(s) before.

I visited him one time & he had just landed a contract with DisneyLand for something like 50,000 wallets. He was very busy.

I acquired a Comet and matching rig this weekend for the collection. The canopy is a Comet 228 ; the rig I think is a Pigmee and has markings from both Parachutes Australia and Embury Sky Systems on it. Some pics attached, not jumped it yet.

Is this some other old gear, or just a LOTR reference? (nothing wrong with LOTR references obviously!)

I had to google LOTR to see what you meant by that, haha. Never read any of those books or saw any of the movies. BUT, the Nasgull was another (experimental) canopy that Bill Gargano was working on in that time frame (early 80's). Supposedly it flew at like 60 mph, and the few times it was test jumped it was flown, cut away and not landed. Bill described it as looking "like a malfunctioning Paradactyl".

I think the handle configuration may have come from the fact that this rig was seemingly originally built with a single handle SOS system ; in configuring it back to having seperate handles on opposite sides, I'm speculating that a lazy / easy option was taken by whoever did the conversion and the cutaway system was left as it was with the reserve handle conversion added to the non-standard side.

I acquired a Comet and matching rig this weekend for the collection. The canopy is a Comet 228 ; the rig I think is a Pigmee and has markings from both Parachutes Australia and Embury Sky Systems on it. Some pics attached, not jumped it yet.

Anyone notice anything odd about the rig?

Wow, stretch the memory banks, but I know that rig! Bill Gargano traded rights with PA so they could build his canopies there and he could build their rigs here. That blue/brown one you have was part of a set he built for a team we formed back then. And yeah, the cutaway/reserve handles could be in any of three configurations: SOS, normal or reversed like yours seems to be.

And I would strongly suggest that you have that canopy stress tested before you jump it. IIRC, there was a problem with a particular batch of that light blue material and it's integrity wasn't holding up.

In 1982 I bought a new Northen Lite. I wanted a right hand throw out, and left hand cutaway and a right hand reserve. At the time, like you, I thought the reserve should be your strong hand and also alternating hands wasn't a bad thing.

They built me a COMPLETELY opposite rig with a left hand throw out. What the hell I kept it. I also had another Northern Lite that was a 'normal' rig with right hand throw out AND a Crossbow rig with a right hand main ripcord. I jumped all three interchangably. At the Nationals Boogie gear check in 1983 it might have been Bagley doing it. Anyway whoever it was, I showed them the left hand rig first. They asked "you left handed?" I said nope. They just looked confused. Then I gave them the right hand rig. The comment? "your going to kill yourself!"

I was throwing a lot of static line students so used all three rigs in a row. (the crossbow was a had a PC main) I only reached the wrong way once. And only moved my hand a few inches before realizing I was moving the wrong hand and switched.

I had to google LOTR to see what you meant by that, haha. Never read any of those books or saw any of the movies. BUT, the Nasgull was another (experimental) canopy that Bill Gargano was working on in that time

Awesome, thanks! - it's actually spelled 'Nazgul' in the books but from I can see the Hobbit was also his design as well. Sounds like Mr Gargano had good taste in literature.

in reply to "Anybody ever owned or jumped a Comet?" .................................

What a great canopy . I've still got a fresh one stored nicely. My original ( an ozzy X228 ) gave me over 1000 openings without fail although it got a bit porous over time. The champ CRW guys were using them at the time and if you had one you got to go on all sorts of CRW pioneering records. 8 stacks for me with a couple of hundred jumps and 18 years old ....wow life was good. (thank you 'Plane Scared' for the incedible memories ) Wouldn't've happened if I'd bought a Cruislite or Unit.

A Comet/X228 was/is good for cliff soaring and mine gave me many 100's of flights and free hours in the air. There was a cliff a few miles from home that was good in any easterly over 15 knots, 20knots perfect. In nil wind it was possible to get inflation and launch for a 150ft accuracy approach down to the sand. The CRW guys were doing practice crossovers and stacks off the cliff.

The current base canopies owe a lot to this type of parachute, cause they were just so reliable and true all rounders and gave base jumpers something they could rely on.